Warth - I was there too. It was a great game to go to. Have not had many of these blowouts where someone like Walter Sharpe can get some burn.

Thanks for the heads up on the tickets. Perhaps they will also remove some of those personalized parking spaces and shrink down VIP so you don't have to walk across empty VIP spots in 20 deg weather next year.

... and it was pretty funny because he thought he closed his eyes so he made the girl who took the picture show it to him and make sure it was okay, or else they'd have to take a new one. i thought it was amusing he was concerned about it lol.

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You know why? When you have sleep apnea, you don't want pictures floating around the web with your eyes shut. Especially when you're a bench warmer who hasn't had a chance to prove yourself.

They're not good enough to beat Boston and Cleveland in a 7 game series. It looks like fun beating up on the 3rd string lineup of an already bad team, but in a series against veteran coaches, with superstar lineups, this team will not be playing Will I Am or Amir or maybe even Kwame and AA.

If AI comes back, and can contribute enough to offset Curry's lack of experience, we might have a chance.

If Iverson does not come back, or comes back but can't help, the Pistons will not go far as currently constituted.

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In the grand scheme of things Tay and Rip continuing to be viable 3 pt shooters is more important to them than AI playing and I don't mean that as a slight to AI in any way.

You know why? When you have sleep apnea, you don't want pictures floating around the web with your eyes shut. Especially when you're a bench warmer who hasn't had a chance to prove yourself.

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hahaha that's a great point. unfortunately i didn't get to see the dunk.

max, let's just say you're either going to get a discount, or...if you're willing to spend the same $ on tickets, you might get an 'upgrade' in your seating. also if you pay early you'll save a decent amount of $. two other sidenotes...where are your seats anyway? i'm in section 111. and i pronounce Warthog as Wart-hog (the animal) and not Warth-og like you were pronouncing in the podcast. :D

In the grand scheme of things Tay and Rip continuing to be viable 3 pt shooters is more important to them than AI playing and I don't mean that as a slight to AI in any way.

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you make a great point. tay has seemed to stop pump-faking incessantly since AI has been out and he's simply shooting the ball. rip is back to shooting and making some 3s. if you can get it back to sheed/rip/tay as 3-point threats in the lineup, that's going to be huge.

also, nice to see stuckey's midrange game back. i don't think a single one that he made even came close to touching the rim.

hahaha that's a great point. unfortunately i didn't get to see the dunk.

max, let's just say you're either going to get a discount, or...if you're willing to spend the same $ on tickets, you might get an 'upgrade' in your seating. also if you pay early you'll save a decent amount of $. two other sidenotes...where are your seats anyway? i'm in section 111. and i pronounce Warthog as Wart-hog (the animal) and not Warth-og like you were pronouncing in the podcast. :D

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Why did I write? Maybe I will just call you W.

They are running scared about the fan base so thats a good thing for the fans.

In the grand scheme of things Tay and Rip continuing to be viable 3 pt shooters is more important to them than AI playing and I don't mean that as a slight to AI in any way.

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I'll give you that in the first and second round, but not in the third (ECF).

When the series get late, and the quality of competition increases, everyone has a book on how to play these guys. It's going to be AI off the bench that is going to be the wildcard they can't easily prepare for.

Think Stuckey last year against Orlando and earlier this year.

I never understood why we were not getting good looks when AI was in. It's like no one knew how to space themselves. And he is capable of passing out to the long arc from under the basket. He had no trouble playing with a relative stiff like Korver and getting him lots of 3Pt opps.

Suddenly, the spacing is great. It's not rocket science to make yourself available for a pass that far from the hoop.

I see the offense being a lot more lively, a lot more picked up. Rip's been playing fantastic. Can he keep it up? I hope so.

They can counter AI by just playing their superstars for 44 minutes each.

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I don't think they can. Although I am not sure if that is a joke or not.

AI doesn't have to play a lot of minutes, he just has to continue to maintain his rate of production. I think someone recently pointed out that with less minutes, his stats scale consistently.

This team is too talented to lose, but they don't have enough without AI. They didn't have enough last year, and the East is better now, and their coach is probably a pretty big minus.

We can get lucky with seedings, and hope for some injuries, but ultimately, in a Game 7 dogfight, I want a guy who can get to the hoop and get the benefit of the doubt on a call. Even if he is only a 79 or 85% ft shooter.

I'm just saying that teams play their stars more in the playoffs, so it's harder to confuse them with a bench strategy. They'll just leave one of their good players in at all times like they probably will do anyway.

Look at game 6 against Bos last year. There was never a single second of the game where Allen, Pierce, or KG wasn't on the court. And there was only a 4:40 span where 2 of them weren't in together. So, if we were looking to throw them off with AI, they would have had 4:40 of mild exposure. And during that time, they still had their starting center in too. PopcornMachine's GameFlow - BOS @ DET

In game 5, it would have been even more impossible. Rondo played for 46 minutes and Pierce played for 44.5 minutes. KG and Allen for about 40 each and their gaps were staggered. They had an 8 man rotation with only 29 total minutes to their bench. PopcornMachine's GameFlow - DET @ BOS

well this was a much more interesting game than i expected. i saw like 5 random people i work with, which is odd because i never see anyone i know. then jmax proceeded to eat babies. then, our ticket guy gave us 'meet and greet' passes to meet one of the players after the game...sweet!! so with about 2 minutes to go we went down into the Shock locker room with a group of other people.

first, Tom Wilson came in to chat with us...which was pretty cool. he said it was nice to have a breather game for once. the next thing he said is that it is interesting that the pistons are playing better without allen iverson. he mentioned a game in chicago where we blew a 15-point lead in the 4th, and then again mentioned how we are 9-0 without allen iverson playing, and that the players seem to be having more fun on the court. with that being said, he made it a point that he still thinks the pistons need AI and is kind of wondering in hindsight why they didn't make this bench move sooner (or use it from the very beginning), saying that sometimes it's hard for AI to play with starter-level players and that they could sometimes get frustrated, but that he fits in perfectly with the bench and players who aren't looking to score. Wilson also said it's pretty much one of the strangest years he can remember, beating every division leader but losing to pretty much all of the bottom teams.

he also said that AI went to Joe yesterday and told him he would go to the bench and do whatever it took to help the team win.

so, next came in James 'Buddha' Edwards, sans fu manchu. btw, he's rather tall. he autographed an 8.5x11" picture of himself and then i got a picture of us on my camera phone, which unfortunately came out blurry. this is the part where roscoe says something about me never bringing my real camera to the game.

next Blaha came in, and my buddy mentions how he has the same suitcoat...i laughed because it was rather hideous as many of you probably saw...yellow/black? Blaha joked how it was a poor choice to wear a flannel coat with it being so warm outside...anyway i got a picture with him too (this time better quality on my buddy's camera phone).

last but not least...Walter Sharpe! lol, i figured it would be him, especially because the entire team was waiting for him to do the meet & greet before they boarded a plane to atlanta for their game tomorrow. so he came up to me and i shook his hand and said it was cool that he got playing time tonight and he said he was happy to finally get in a game. he signed his player profile page in the Pistons yearbook they gave us. my buddy took a picture with Sharpe, and it was pretty funny because he thought he closed his eyes so he made the girl who took the picture show it to him and make sure it was okay, or else they'd have to take a new one. i thought it was amusing he was so concerned about it.

we also got some excellent news about ticket prices for next year, especially for season-ticket holders. max...i think you're going to be pretty happy with what they're doing, and they said the packets should be in the mail soon.

overall...what an awesome night!! thanks to the people who work at the Palace for giving back a little to the fans (they said they do the meet & greet after every game...and also provide some cookies/beverages while you're waiting), which is pretty cool.

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Thanks for the in side scoops Wart...nice info except for the million dollar question?? Did you see AI before the game, in the locker room heading for the team bus, hiding in a locker??

I don't think we're going to get an answer to the AI question anytime soon, but here's some stuff from the papers;

It's already been determined that Allen Iverson won't travel with the team while he's rehabbing his ailing back. But Curry said Friday that Iverson won't be sitting on the bench during home games, either.

"Sitting for such a long period of time like that is not good for his back -- that's what I was told," Curry said. "But he's been in here getting his treatment."

Curry was asked if he felt it was important for Iverson to stay attached to the team during his convalescence.

"He is," Curry said. "He may not be talking to you all (media), but he's here. He understands that we need him here and we need him healthy."

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And a very scary possibility;

"Before we didn't like Allen and Will playing together because of their size," Curry said. "But if we can get Will playing at a high level and Allen healthy and playing at a high level, then we can force teams to match down to us.

Damn, by the time this game was over the Warriors barely had enough guys to put on the court... they were down to 6 at one point!!

All in all a very good game, start to finish. They dominated.

Stuck had a really good game, totally 14 points and 8 assists. Scored when needed, facilitated when that was needed... threw some really nice alley-oop passes. Was a bit inconsistent on defense though... had some nice contests on Crawford, but committed a couple stupid head-scratching fouls on long jumpers as well.

Rip and Prince both played very well on both ends. Rip even had one nice drive baseline for the finish and foul.

Sheed was a non factor on offense, only taking two shots total. Solid rebounding performance (7) and he did have one really nice assist to rip on a backdoor cut to the basket out of the high post.

Maxiell, Bynum and Afflalo (finally got some playing time!!) were all really solid off the bench in this game. Curry even went to a Stuck-Bynum backcourt for a few minutes with mixed results... I believe that was the first time that backcourt combination has been used this season. Bynum shouldn't EVER be taking mid range jumpers though... god he is awful at it. He needs to continue to attack the basket and be a disrupter on defense, and I'll be more than happy.